Why International Election Support Fails When It Speaks Only English and French

In 2024, I stood at a lorry station in Ho and listened to two drivers argue about the election in Ewe and Twi.

That same week, at an ECOWAS workshop I covered as a former GBC journalist, international experts were arguing about Ghana's election in English and French in a conference room in Accra.

Same election. Two different languages. Two different worlds.

That is why international election support often fails.

The UN, AU, ECOWAS — they speak excellent English and French. They publish excellent reports on election security. But peace does not live in reports. It lives in lorry stations, markets, and border communities where people speak Ewe, Ga, Twi, Dagbani, Hausa, Fon, and Mina.

As a lecturer and a journalist, I have seen this gap. An international observer mission arrives with a press release in English. Meanwhile, a false voice note spreads in Twi on WhatsApp saying "they have already rigged." Which message will a driver in Ho believe? The one in the language he dreams in.

Research confirms this. Penplusbytes found 91% of Ghanaians communicate daily in local languages, and 71% trust information more when it is in local languages. Yet most international fact-checking and peace messaging tools work only in English. Our international architecture is in English, but our election disinformation is in local languages.

This is not just a Ghana problem. It is an international problem. From Nigeria to Senegal to the Sahel, where I focus my research on violent extremism, the same pattern repeats.

Three lessons for international cooperation:
A ballot speaks English, but trust speaks local. International partners ask: will the election be credible? Market women ask in Ga: will my vote be counted fairly? If international messages do not answer in Ga, someone else will answer with disinformation in Ga.

Election security is language security. Violent extremism and election violence share a root: feeling unheard by the state and by international actors. When we interview border communities near Bawku in languages they dream in, they share fears they will never share with an English-speaking researcher from Accra or Geneva. When state and international messages arrive only in English, people assume those institutions are not speaking to them. Listening in local languages is early warning for both ECOWAS and the UN.

Kofi Annan's lesson for international workers. Kofi Annan was renowned because he could sit with a US President and with a Ghanaian chief and make both feel understood. He translated global security into local meaning. That is what international election support must learn. It is not enough to publish in English. We must translate context. What does "collation" mean to a farmer in Bawku? What does "democratic resilience" mean to a driver in Aflao in Ewe?

If I serve at UNDP, AU, or continue teaching, my proposal for international organizations is simple: create Election Peace Desks in local languages.

Let UNDP, ECOWAS, and AU have Ewe explainers, Twi explainers, Ga explainers, Dagbani explainers — not just English PDFs. Let fact-checkers produce 60-second voice notes in local languages. Let international funding support community radio to do election education in local languages, not just English jingles in Accra.

Ghana is praised for peaceful elections. The world can learn from Ghana. But peace is not an event managed in English in New York. It is a conversation held in local languages in Ho, Bawku, Kumasi, and Aflao.

Speak internationally, listen locally. That is how international support can actually keep elections peaceful.